Day: May 1, 2022

His wife controls his life (or death)

Life is different, Stephen McGann has found, when you’re married to an in-demand TV writer.
Books keep arriving, in hopes that Heidi Thomas will adapt them. They form “the growing mountain of night-time reading we stack by our bedside,” McGann wrote in “Call the Midwife: A Labour of Love” (2022, Neal Street Productions).
Thomas reads fast and discards quickly. But a dozen years ago, she announced: “You know, I think I might be able to do something with this.”
The result is “Call the Midwife” (shown here with McGann and Max Mcmillan, who plays his son),now at a key point: Previous episodes are at www.pbs.org and the 11th-season finale is at 8 p.m. Sunday (May 8) on PBS: Last week, a crash left three people on a train, near death — Sister Julienne and a former patient … and Dr. Turner, played by McGann. Read more…

Best-bets for May 3: Holy moly, is it summer already?

1) “Holey Moley” season-opener, 8 p.m., ABC.  Is it summer already? Apparently. This opened its past seasons on June 17, May 21 and June 20, fitting the light tone of a miniature-golf show. But here it is already, with the Muppets joining Joe Tessitore and Rob Riggle (shown here) for commentary. Jeannie Mai works the sidelines and Stephen Curry (who’s also quite good at basketball) is the golf pro. Read more…

CNN Films score (again) with “Navalny”

It’s easy to dump on Jeff Zucker, the former head of NBC and CNN and more.
But let’s look at something that has turned out well: Under Zucker, CNN developed a strong lineup of shows on Saturday and Sunday nights; that’s clear now, with:
–Sundays: “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy” has just started its second season. Barring breaking news, it’s at 9 p.m. and midnight, with another travel-and-food show (“Nomad with Carlton McCoy”) at 10 and 1, plus a Tucci rerun at 11.
— Saturday, May 14: “Navalny” (shown here), a compelling documentary movie, reruns from 9-11 p.m., followed by Tucci and McCoy reruns. It had been set for May 7, but then was pushed back a week. Read more…